We need to talk about nitrogen

We need to talk about nitrogen. You weren’t expecting that were you? 

In recent years you’ve probably heard much more about carbon, and its impact on our climate. But our excess use of nitrogen fertilisers (in the global north) has also pushed us beyond a ‘safe operating space for humanity’.

The fertiliser industry has sold us a narrative that they ‘feed the world’, and portray their product as an agri-business success story. 

But Foodrise has taken a deep dive into this murky industry, and our upcoming report tells a different – and worrying – story.  

We expose how this harmful industry, which has been almost entirely unaccountable, has been pushing a product with a huge environmental, social and economic cost for humanity.

We show how the harms of human-made nitrogen have long been known, but the fertiliser industry has continued to increase production, make huge profits, capture public policy and go about its business largely unquestioned and unchallenged.  

For the first time, our report will name the companies responsible and identify their role in derailing efforts to tackle the nitrogen crisis, by seeking to distract from their environmental impacts and peddling myths about their benefits.  

This crisis is also first and foremost a crisis of the food system. Foodrise reveals how the overproduction and overuse of nitrogen fertilisers have powered the industrialisation of our food system, including the excessive production of meat and dairy, which is harming people’s health and driving climate change and biodiversity loss.  

But this crisis can be solved by transforming what we grow and what we eat.  

In line with the findings of the 2025 EAT-Lancet report, Foodrise offers recommendations for our political leaders and policy makers to finally fix our nitrogen problem.  

It is high time that the fertiliser industry was held to account. Urgent action is needed for people and planet. Find the full details in our upcoming report on the harms of the fertiliser industry.